Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Insulting the army

Not long ago we wrote about the case of Yassine Ayari, a Tunisian who was tried in absentia by a military court for insulting the army on his Facebook page and arrested when he arrived at Tunis on a flight from Paris. Nawaat has a good summary of the overlapping provisions of Tunisian legislation here. The article cites three other such cases and asks whether they complied with the law and whether the underlying statute is constitutional.

It seems aberrant today that the military can still try civilians. The jurisdiction ratione personae of military courts - at least in peace - must be limited to military personnel or those who are assimilated to the military.